The @DHSOIG concluded that ICE and DHS officials repeatedly lied to Congress and the public about whether parents had voluntarily chosen to leave their children behind, insisting that every deportation was thoroughly documented.
This is the second time since October that @DHSOIG concluded that Kirstjen Nielsen misled the public.
In October, OIG disclosed that she signed a memo limiting asylum capacity at ports of entry then stood at the White House podium and denied that asylum seekers were turned away.
OIG finds that ICE had no standard policy for deporting parents when Zero Tolerance began, so one ICE field office "typically removed parents without asking if they wanted to be joined by their children."
ICE and DHS leadership told Congress this never happened. That was wrong.
The @DHSOIG finds that "at least 348 separated parents" were deported without being asked if they wanted to reunify with their child (to be precise, "ICE has no records" for the 348), and some parents who said they wanted to reunify were deported anyway.
Crimes against humanity.
Here @DHSOIG provides three cases of fathers who affirmatively told @ICEgov they wanted to reunify with their children before being deported.
ICE documented each request and then deported the parents anyway—and Kirstjen Nielsen later claimed to Congress it could never happen.
On top of the 348 parents deported with no evidence of being asked about reunification, OIG identified an additional 149 parents who supposedly signed documents accepting deportation without reunification—but the documentation is so sketchy OIG implies it's not trustworthy.
After you've gotten to the bottom of this thread, now read the full list of statements that the @DHSOIG notes Trump's DHS officials made to the public and under oath to Congress.
Nielsen and Acting ICE Director Albence's claims about ICE's reunification process were fictional.
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BREAKING: The Supreme Court rules 6-3 in favor of the Trump admin on Temporary Protected Status, blocking the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds, allowing DHS to strip over 350,000 people of legal status even though they utterly failed to follow the required legal procedures.
The Supreme Court ALSO gives Trump another pass on racism, declaring that his bigoted comments against Haitians are actually not evidence of racism and that the plaintiffs cannot show evidence of racial bias, essentially plugging their ears and letting Trump spew filth as policy.
The upshot of this decision is that once it goes into effect, hundreds of thousands of people who have been living and working legally in the United States, some for many years, and many who entered completely legally, will lose their work permits and deportation protections.
🚨 🚨 🚨 NEW: A shocking @USCIS memo seems to declare that hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in this country and applying for green cards must instead apply for visas abroad; which could MASSIVELY disrupt lives.
1. Apply for an immigrant visa at a U.S. consulate abroad. 2. Apply for a green card while already in the USA.
The new @USCIS memo seems to say that most people in group 2 should generally be denied a green card and forced to apply abroad.
@USCIS Why does it matter if people have to apply abroad?
- It could force people to leave their jobs, homes, and families for weeks or months, all at their own expense
- Consular decisions are virtually unchallengeable in court, even when egregiously wrong
- Backlogs can be much worse
Today the Supreme Court hears a case that will decide the fate of over 350,000 people currently living legally in the United States — and impact thousands more who are still in limbo.
So what is Temporary Protected Status and what is the case about? NEW 🧵 on the issue.
Temporary Protected Status was created to deal with the fact that sometimes, due to an outbreak of war, political crisis, or natural disaster, deportation becomes inhumane.
Without a law to address this, presidents responded on an ad hoc basis using inherent executive authority.
Before TPS, Presidents used a thing called "extended voluntary departure" to address these crisis. For example:
- Ford gave EVD to Lebanese in 1976 due to civil war
- Carter gave EVD to Ugandans in 1978 due to civil war
- Reagan gave EVD to Poles in 1981 due to Soviet crackdowns
From FY 2021 through FY 2024, roughly 3.5 million people became U.S. citizens through naturalization. The idea that Biden is somehow personally responsible if any of them later went on to commit crimes is beyond stupid; it's willfully ignorant and deliberately inflammatory.
Neither @nypost or @DHSgov has EVER blamed Trump for any crimes committed by an immigrant who entered the country or got status under Trump. Not once.
It's because they KNOW it's not a good faith argument.
Wait, sorry, so now the Trump admin is attempting to strip green cards from people just because of who their families are?! And people are cheering this on?
People with DACA came here as children. Every one of them has been here for a minimum 19 years. They grew up here. They went to school here. Many speak English with no accent. They are working legally, paying taxes, doing everything right.
Because that's not something a President can do. Only Congress can provide a path to permanent legal status for most DACA recipients. And Congress has sat on its ass for years, even though huge majorities of the American public supports the DREAM Act.
In 2018, the Supreme Court said DACA might be legal if it only protected against deportation, not provided work permits. The 5th Circuit, the most conservative in the country, upheld that version and limited their ruling only to Texas (the plaintiff).